Couriers are a type of starship heavily employed by humanity, primarily for the purpose of superluminal communications. Prior to the mid-26th century, human faster-than-light communications relied courier vessels to manually move between the stars and colony worlds of human space to link together the Unified Earth Government's domain.[1] Most courier ships take the form of small shuttles; fast, versatile, reliable, and requiring only a minimal crew for their journeys.[2] However, the role can be performed by essentially any ship with a memory bank within which to store data, such as freighters like those used by the UNSC Department of Commercial Shipping.[3] Couriers carry large communications arrays that let them upload and download large masses of data when entering a given star system, communicating with the system's developed network of satellites and laser communications infrastructure.[1]
Couriers maintain a strong presence in the more developed worlds of humanity,[2] and have been likened to the 26th century equivalent of the Pony Express.[3] They are used in both civilian, governmental, and military roles, and may also be used as diplomatic shuttles.[2] The Valiant-class super-heavy cruiser command refits often serviced couriers for wartime use.[4]
Courier classes
The following represent some of the most commonly-used couriers in human space.[2] However, many other kinds of human ship such as freighters may serve in the role.[3]
The Han, a Vancouver-class courier in Office of Naval Intelligence service.
List of appearances
- Halo: The Fall of Reach (First appearance)
- Halo: Contact Harvest (Indirect mention)
- Dr. Halsey's personal journal
- Halo: The Fall of Reach - The Animated Series
- Halo Infinite: Memory Agent
- Halo: The Television Series
Sources
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